


Miles to Go

by Lefaym



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-07
Updated: 2009-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-08 02:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/71953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefaym/pseuds/Lefaym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening":</p><p>Jack contemplates sleep and makes a promise to himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Miles to Go

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to used_songs from LJ for the beta.

Gwen and Ianto are surprised when Jack suddenly stops the SUV in the middle of the Brecon Beacons. They're exhausted after a day of following false leads across south Wales; the sun is setting, it's beginning to snow, and seconds ago all of them had been speaking longingly of the Hub, coffee, and clean clothes, but Jack just tells them to wait a moment, there's something he needs to see. He barely registers the expressions of puzzlement and worry that pass across their faces—he simply opens the door and lets himself out before they have the chance to ask questions.

Tiny white flakes catch in Jack's hair as he walks away from the car, but he doesn't even notice as he is drawn inexorably towards the thicket of winter-bare oak and ash trees that almost reaches down to the shoreline of the lake on his left. He thinks he recognises this place, the curve of the hills in the distance, the small copse filling with snow—he can't quite place it, but it all seems familiar somehow. Had he come here with a lover once? On a mission? Or maybe it's just the trees themselves, bound so intimately to the earth and to the shadows that grow deeper by the second.

He knows now that he will last even longer than the trees.

Jack lowers himself onto one knee, so that he can brush his hand through the thin layer of snow and take a fistful of almost frozen dirt in his hand. He feels the earth against his palm, and for a moment, he wishes he could return to it and that almost endless sleep, where even dreams of those he hadn't been able to save had stopped plaguing him after a while, his penance becoming his respite.

It's impossible though.

He stands and looks out over the water, turning away from the trees and that deep inviting darkness. He unclenches his fist, and the soil slips through his fingers, the memory of sleep trickling from his hand. Behind him, he hears Gwen calling his name, and he turns his head slightly in response, as though he hears her from a distance, but then she's next to him, her hand slipping warmly inside his, and moments later Ianto is there too, his shoulder against Jack's, their knuckles brushing lightly before their fingers lock together.

They watch without speaking as the last light disappears from the sky, and the snow continues to fall. They instinctively huddle closer together for warmth, none of them wanting to let go, not yet. Silently, Jack makes a promise to himself that he knows he can't keep—that he'll protect them, that next time he'll keep them safe. And somehow, even though it's a lie, that promise is enough—enough to stop him from looking back to the woods, to the earth, to the sleep that will always evade him.

"Come on," he says finally, turning back to the SUV. "Miles to go yet."


End file.
